I've been a stuck on the novel,'The Book of the Sasquatch' for some time so I started another novel called 'Wilhelmina and Copperhead Beals," (A Yukon Love Story). Here is a bit from it.
The opening paragraph starts, "My name is Kevin Ogilvie Beals. I was born and raised in Dawson City. I was the second child of hardworking. loving parents Edward and Maggie Beals and the brother of a terrible older sister named Gaylene. I'm certain if I had been an only child my life would have been better."
Kevin doesn't like his sister's boyfriends. "Gaylene had a greaser boyfriend. Her bad temper kept him on edge and under her thumb. I don't know what Jeb saw in her maybe he liked the way she snapped her gum. I felt sorry for him he was a nice guy, but Gaylene turned him mean. He called me tubby and for two cents I'd have punched him in the face."
Kevin wants to operate heavy equipment. "As long as I can remember I wanted to be a heavy equipment operator. When I was a kid, I spent hours climbing over bulldozers, front-end loaders and graders that were parked for the weekend in the Territorial Government's compound. I sat on the black leather seats of a massive D-8 pulling levers and vibrating my lips. I was in imagination heaven."
If someone asked what I was doing, I said, "I'm building the Alaska Highway."
"What an dumb ass my brother is," Gaylene said.
Kevin tells how he was nicknamed Copperhead. "In grade four I got the nickname Copperhead. I licked pennies and stuck them on my forehead. "I'm a Sumerian," I announced to my parents, "like in long ago Babylon."
"That's lovely," said my mom.
"What an idiot," said Gaylene.
"My dad said nothing but lifted his newspaper higher. It shook a little like he was laughing behind it.
When I discovered crazy glue I stuck eight pennies across my forehead and admired myself in the mirror. I wished I had read the instructions.
My mother tried to soften the glue with warm cooking oil, but it ran in my eyes making everything blurry. I staggered around, my arms outstretched like Boris Karloff in the Mummy."
Kevin has a best friend named Greg Popper. "Greg was a sports fan. He knew everything about everyone who ever played professional sports. He skipped school to listen to the Yankee's last game of the 1961 season. Roger Maris could break Babe Ruth's record of sixty home runs. His parents were at work, so he lay under the covers maneuvering a radio dial that broadcasted more static than words."
"In the fourth inning, Maris hit his record breaking sixty-first home run. Greg got so excited he jumped up with the blankets over his head, stumbled, hit his head on the bed post and knocked himself out cold. Roger rounded the bases as he lay unconscious."
Kevin graduates from high school and goes gold mining. "When I graduated from high school with top honors, I already knew what I wanted to do. I had staked three claims on Blanc Raven Creek thirty miles upstream from Dawson. I was going to hand work the claim until I earned enough money to purchase equipment then I would become the Gold Czar of the Yukon."
"Elder Chief Daniel told me, "I know that creek. I camped there many times looking for game up and down the river. I always thought to prospect it but it didn't seem right. It seemed the creek was waiting for someone else to claim it. Joseph Copper named it Blanc Raven. He met Trudeau in the early 60's and fancied himself bilingual. He hardly knew two words of French. He told me he saw a white raven with a nest of white chicks on the creek."
The story goes on to tell about Wilhelmina the niece of the Halloos of Rock Creek. Kevin courts her much to the objections of the Halloo men. Kevin and Winch Halloo have a fist fight. Kevin and Wilhelmina are married and move to Blanc Raven Creek. Gaylene, not married, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a Down Syndrome baby which she abandons. Wilhelmina loses her baby in tragic circumstances and takes 'David' from Gaylene to raise as her own.
A car club is organized by Jeb and his friends. They are bullies, beat their women and travel to Whitehorse to race. One member, Frankie, flirts with Jeb's girl Gaylene and is thrown out of the club. He suffers the loss of his friends in a small town.
I'm about 14000 words into the story and it seems to be working. I have never written fantasy but I think with 'The Book of the Sasquatch' I'm going to get involved in ancient north American fountains of youth and maybe some fable cities of gold.
Thanks for being interested,
David
The opening paragraph starts, "My name is Kevin Ogilvie Beals. I was born and raised in Dawson City. I was the second child of hardworking. loving parents Edward and Maggie Beals and the brother of a terrible older sister named Gaylene. I'm certain if I had been an only child my life would have been better."
Kevin doesn't like his sister's boyfriends. "Gaylene had a greaser boyfriend. Her bad temper kept him on edge and under her thumb. I don't know what Jeb saw in her maybe he liked the way she snapped her gum. I felt sorry for him he was a nice guy, but Gaylene turned him mean. He called me tubby and for two cents I'd have punched him in the face."
Kevin wants to operate heavy equipment. "As long as I can remember I wanted to be a heavy equipment operator. When I was a kid, I spent hours climbing over bulldozers, front-end loaders and graders that were parked for the weekend in the Territorial Government's compound. I sat on the black leather seats of a massive D-8 pulling levers and vibrating my lips. I was in imagination heaven."
If someone asked what I was doing, I said, "I'm building the Alaska Highway."
"What an dumb ass my brother is," Gaylene said.
Kevin tells how he was nicknamed Copperhead. "In grade four I got the nickname Copperhead. I licked pennies and stuck them on my forehead. "I'm a Sumerian," I announced to my parents, "like in long ago Babylon."
"That's lovely," said my mom.
"What an idiot," said Gaylene.
"My dad said nothing but lifted his newspaper higher. It shook a little like he was laughing behind it.
When I discovered crazy glue I stuck eight pennies across my forehead and admired myself in the mirror. I wished I had read the instructions.
My mother tried to soften the glue with warm cooking oil, but it ran in my eyes making everything blurry. I staggered around, my arms outstretched like Boris Karloff in the Mummy."
Kevin has a best friend named Greg Popper. "Greg was a sports fan. He knew everything about everyone who ever played professional sports. He skipped school to listen to the Yankee's last game of the 1961 season. Roger Maris could break Babe Ruth's record of sixty home runs. His parents were at work, so he lay under the covers maneuvering a radio dial that broadcasted more static than words."
"In the fourth inning, Maris hit his record breaking sixty-first home run. Greg got so excited he jumped up with the blankets over his head, stumbled, hit his head on the bed post and knocked himself out cold. Roger rounded the bases as he lay unconscious."
Kevin graduates from high school and goes gold mining. "When I graduated from high school with top honors, I already knew what I wanted to do. I had staked three claims on Blanc Raven Creek thirty miles upstream from Dawson. I was going to hand work the claim until I earned enough money to purchase equipment then I would become the Gold Czar of the Yukon."
"Elder Chief Daniel told me, "I know that creek. I camped there many times looking for game up and down the river. I always thought to prospect it but it didn't seem right. It seemed the creek was waiting for someone else to claim it. Joseph Copper named it Blanc Raven. He met Trudeau in the early 60's and fancied himself bilingual. He hardly knew two words of French. He told me he saw a white raven with a nest of white chicks on the creek."
The story goes on to tell about Wilhelmina the niece of the Halloos of Rock Creek. Kevin courts her much to the objections of the Halloo men. Kevin and Winch Halloo have a fist fight. Kevin and Wilhelmina are married and move to Blanc Raven Creek. Gaylene, not married, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a Down Syndrome baby which she abandons. Wilhelmina loses her baby in tragic circumstances and takes 'David' from Gaylene to raise as her own.
A car club is organized by Jeb and his friends. They are bullies, beat their women and travel to Whitehorse to race. One member, Frankie, flirts with Jeb's girl Gaylene and is thrown out of the club. He suffers the loss of his friends in a small town.
I'm about 14000 words into the story and it seems to be working. I have never written fantasy but I think with 'The Book of the Sasquatch' I'm going to get involved in ancient north American fountains of youth and maybe some fable cities of gold.
Thanks for being interested,
David